[laughter, cheers, and applause] abducted from her beach front home. her husband horrified. >> my wife made a phone call to >> her mother terrified. >> it's your worse nightmare imagining what's happening to your child. >> a note with big demands left by mist ear kidnappers who seemed to know all, see all. >> they're watching the house. >> they're watching the house. >> and then the victim herself called. >> her mom, jumping into work with police would hand over the ransom herself. >> if i didn't drop the money properly that would be the end for quinn. >> she dropped the cash all right, but who picked it up?

>> that's where everything went wrong. >> everything went wrong. >> a kidnapping case about to go way off script. >> her story did not make sense. >> what was really going on? >> i'm a cop of 11 years. i blushed when i listened to the tape. >> a story with more twists and turns than the florida roads they raced along trying to find this missing mom. >> this case was not going turn out like a lot of people assumed. >> josh mankiewicz with "ransom." ♪ ♪ ♪ >> thanks for joining us. i'm lester holt. whenever someone is kidnapped it triggers a race against time as police often joined by the victim's family, begin a frantic search. that's what happened in this story which begins with a young mom abducted at gunpoint, but as you're about to see, though her family and veteran investigators spent desperate days trying to find out where she was, they never could have guessed who had her and why.

here's josh mankiewicz. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> this is the sheriff's office. >> my wife made a phone call to me a minute ago to say that she was held by gunpoint. >> businessman reid gray was on the line with the sheriff's office in a panic. he told the 911 operator that his wife had phoned him minutes earlier to say she'd been kidnapped. >> i would say it's not. >> the call would turn out to be just the beginning of an unbelievable saga that would baffle investigators and turn this husband's life upside down. the next few days would bring one setback after another and no one could have predicted how it all would come to an end. it was around 5:00 p.m.,

september 4, 2009. reid's wife quinn had called him at work and told him she'd just been kidnapped right out of their $4 million home. reid couldn't believe what he'd heard and went to his office parking lot to try to think straight. >> did she tell you where she was at? no. there's a note at the house with the gunman's demand. >> the news was as shocking as it was terrifying, quinn, a mom of two young daughters, was a trained nurse who was now raising her children full time. her husband was a self-made man who had finally hit it big in the health care business. this frightened husband told the 911 operator he didn't know what to do next. >> she said if you call the police they will shoot me dead. >> a gun's a gun, man. >> reid gray took a gamble and did just the opposite of what his wife had told him. ♪ ♪

>> soon, multiple law enforcement agencies would be on the case. >> fire and rescue will be coordinating with us. >> county sheriff david shoar. >> all bets are off and there's nothing more important than a victim being held against her will being threatened with homicide so you roll out what you have. >> while reid went to the sheriff's office a s.w.a.t. team was deployed to his home. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> they cautiously entered the multimillion residence. the house sat eerily empty, a photo album opened on a couch, a happy quinn on her wedding day. crime scene techs swept inside and out looking for fingerprints, tire tracks, any clues to the kidnappers' identities. on the dining room table they found a sheet of yellow paper, the ransom note. that looked to be in quinn

gray's handwriting. dear reid, i need you to read this and be calm. reid, do not be a hero. this is professional and there are three men holding me right now and they want $50,000 cash. i will be okay if you get them the money. >> what do you know about the victim? >> we knew she was a housewife raising children in one of the prettier parts of our county. >> reid and quinn gray were new to st. john's county, having just moved into their beachfront home in pon tevedra. it's known for its golf course and lux homes. >> i don't want to use the term the perfect kidnapping victim, but it fit. >> her husband made a lot of money. >> worst-case scenario is we make one wrong move they kill her. >> on the day she was kidnapped the 37-year-old pta mom had made appointments for her daughters to get haircuts and she was far along in the planning for an upcoming party for one of her daughter's birthdays.

now reid gray tried to shield that their mom was in danger. he picked up the girls from school and took them to a friend's house. while he waited at the sheriff's office, reid was still in his shirt and tie from work and he was an emotional wreck. he shared more details about quinn's brief, frantic call to him hours earlier. >> that there was someone with a gun pointed on her head. >> on the call she said they were three kidnappers and they were albanian and the $50,000 ransom was to pay back money reid had borrowed from a loan shark, but reid insisted he didn't owe money to anyone. >> i made $150 million and 50 grand doesn't mean much. >> why ask $50,000 from a man who was making more than $1 million a year?

reid didn't know and neither did investigators. at this point there was only one goal, quinn's safe return. >> it was very disconcerting to realize that we had a housewife and the mother of two small children in whatever she was going through, it wasn't good. >> reporter: and there was something else that wasn't good. this investigation was starting with no witnesses, no clues to the kidnappers' identities and more important, no answers to the question where was quinn gray? coming up, quinn appears on the phone calling her husband with frantic instructions. >> get in the car with the money. >> would he be able to get the cash and find his wife in time? when "ransom" continues. at i ha, i didn't want to change toothpastes. i already had a product that made my mouth feel clean. why am i going to go and change it? the first thing he recommended was that i use sensodyne. sensodyne helps with the sensitivity issues and at the same time it gives you the clean feeling.

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♪ ♪ ♪ reid gray, husband, father florida, a wealthy community 20 miles south of jacksonville. his wife quinn was kidnapped just a few hours earlier. the ransom, $50,000.

>> i'm not going to be able to completely breathe until this is resolved. >> one thing you have to understand is in the modern-day marketplace of crime kidnapping for ransom is practically an antiq antique. here's why. it's not difficult to abduct a family member of a rich person, but things like improved technical surveillance, cooperation between law enforcement agencies and even caller i.d., now make it just about impossible to pick up ransom money and escape undetected. as a result the kind of kidnap young see in the movies pretty much exists only in hollywood, but for reid gray, this was frightening, nerve-racking reality. >> no prior trouble with any phone calls in the middle of the night? strange noises around the house or anything like that, right? >> no. >> married for almost nine years, reid told investigators his relationship with quinn was better than ever and that the couple was even thinking about

having another child. >> she's been just an amazing friend and she's active in taking the girls to dance and taking the girls to all of their after-school programs. >> she is a wonderful daughter, yes. >> quinn's mom, gail sykes. >> that's very difficult for a mother to say who has four daughters, but she was absolutely the sweetest of all the children. >> reporter: that night reid called his mother-in-law with the devastating news. >> i was just completely in shock. as a mother, it's your worst nightmare imagining what's happening to your child. >> what do you think quinn was going through at that point? >> being tortured, tied up, fearing for her life, fearing that she would never see her children again. >> while quinn's mom waited for news at her georgia home, reid stayed at the sheriff's office until about 2:00 a.m. and he then returned to his house while his kids stayed with friends. early the next morning, saturday, about 16 hours after quinn's kidnapping, reid sent a

text to his wife's phone. haven't slept all night. please tell me you're all right. but there was no reply. about two hours later, reid, who was now with investigators, finally got a call. it was quinn and reid became emotional. >> what do i need to do. >> i'll call you back. i don't know. i'll call you back, okay? >> i love you. >> she said she'll call me back. >> reporter: investigators wired up the phone so they could record all of the calls. sheriff shoar was surprised to hear quinn's voice. >> historically the kidnappers don't let the victims communicate. >> in this case it was quinn's voice on the phone. >> yes. >> for the kidnappers is you don't ever hear their voice. >> that's true. >> the sheriff rolled out his mobile command unit to a secluded area near quinn and reid's home. from inside, he started directing the more than 100 law enforcement personnel who were working this case. they waited for the next contact

from the kidnappers, and then about 45 minutes after that last call reid's phone rang again. the cell reception was poor, but quinn gave reid a location for a money drop. >> get in the car with the money and go down blood and take a left -- >> i have to write this down. >> no, just do it, reid! go to butler boulevard and take a left -- >> butler boulevard. hello? >> the conversation abruptly ended and quinn sounded angry. it was easy to imagine the tremendous stress she must be under. reid was growing increasingly worried for his wife's safety. >> she said if you go to the cops they're going to kill me. >> she'll probably call back again. >> the first time she was screaming and crying. >> reid stayed at the sheriff's office as surveillance teams

scrambled to get in place at butler boulevard. investigators also needed more time to get $50,000 cash together for the ransom, but only 30 minutes later another call came in. >> hello? >> it was quinn again, instructing quinn to head to a different location. he was now to go to a chick-fil-a restaurant. >> convertible top down and just wait. >> i want to see you. i want to exchange you for the money. i am not giving that money without you. hello? >> now investigators rushed to get teams in undercover cars in place at the chick-fil-a, but they needed more time so they told reid to play dumb on quinn's next call and say he didn't know which chick-fil-a restaurant to go to. >> which one are you at? >> i told you to be at the chick-fil-a. >> which chick-fil-a. >> by the avenue mall. >> you need to go! >> i want to know you're going to be there. let me talk to them right now. >> once again, the call was

abruptly cut off. quinn sounded frantic. was it possible she had a gun to her head? investigators tried to trace the calls, but they were all so short that an exact location couldn't be pinpointed. and according to detective howard cole, reid gray was becoming unhinged. >> he was scared and he was a nervous wreck. he was worried for himself. he was worried for her. he was worried for his family. >> but before reid left for the chick-fil-a he got another call. there was a problem at the money drop point. >> they spotted three fed cars near chick-fil-a so i don't know where i'm going now. you need to wait for more instruction. >> were the sheriff's undercover teams spotted at the chick-fil-a and is that what quinn meant by fed cars. moments later cayman ominous text from quinn. i know you want me dead. >> reid texted back. i don't know if that's quinn.

i have your $50,000. stop -- with me. just give me my wife. there was no reply. investigators brought reid back to his house and parked in the driveway. they set up a mini command center in the house using a recorder to tape all incoming calls and that's when something happened that no one expected. >> we sent the detectives to that home and we didn't do it surreptitiously because they thought about it and they walked in and the minute they pulled in we received a text from the victim. >> reid got another text from his cell phone. wait for instructions. you -- twice already. you involved other people. whose ford is in the driveway? the drive was an unmarked sheriff's vehicle. >> they're watching the house. >> they're watching the house. >> fearing they were being watched by the kidnappers, the sheriff ordered all his personnel to go covert and get out of sight.

>> we were watching ourselves to see if they were watching us. >> the kidnappers have you watching over your own shoulder. >> exactly right. >> these guys are playing by a different est is rules. >> it was one of the earliest indications to me that this case was not going turn out like a lot of people assumed. coming up, finally, investigators get their first lead only to realize something's gone terribly wrong. >> my hair was on fire. i thought how can something like this happen? when "dateline" continues.

♪ ♪ it was saturday afternoon. quinn gray, wife and mother of two, had been missing for almost 24 hours. after two attempted money drops

failed, the local sheriff called in the fbi. almost 150 people were now working to find quinn gray. the agent in charge of the fbi's jacksonville office is james casey. he says the kidnappers appeared to be deactivating quinn's cell phone after each of the calls they made to reid. >> somebody in the scheme was smart enough to take the battery out of the cell phone because we were able to do some technical capabilities to determine that that phone was not only off, but had no power to it at certain times. >> meaning you can't trace it. >> meaning you can't trace it. >> while there was no pinpointing an exact address where quinn's calls were originating, technicians were tracing pings when the phone was used. those are the electronic connections when the phone hits a particular cell tower and that gives them a general idea where quinn might have been held. >> fbi agent toni cavit was

selected as the lead crisis negotiator for the bureau. >> we've got some leads. >> agents felt they were making progress and suddenly the phone was also pinging farther away. the kidnappers and quinn might have been on the move. sheriff's detective howard cole was sent in pursuit. >> it was believed that quinn gray's cell phone was being tracked to an area west of orlando. >> but something had gone wrong. before tracing the calls, investigators had to get a judge's approval and in the rush to fill out the proper paperwork someone made a small, but critical error. >> when they actually went to get the order signed by a judge, what was typed into the actual affidavit and order, the numbers were transposed. >> somebody put the wrong phone number in. >> human error. >> so the phone you were following quanwasn't quinn's ph >> how long did you follow that phone? >> all day saturday. >> what investigators thought

were solid leads from quinn's cell phones simply vanished. >> when you guys realized you were following the wrong cell phone? >> my hair was on fire. my hair was on fire. i thought how could something like this happen? we were back to square one? who were we looking for? we had no idea. >> the rest of saturday went by with no word from quinn and the kidnappers and quinn's mom, gail sykes left her georgia home and headed to her daughter's house in ponte vedra, florida. >> i jumped in my car and headed south. >> how long was the drive? >> seven and a half hours. >> long drive with that kind of information in your brain. >> at around 2:00 a.m. when gail arrived she found an unbelievable scene. >> i walked into like a war zone. >> the s.w.t. team hiding inside the house? >> they were everywhere. >> i was told that they were outside in the bushes, that they were on the roof. it was -- unreal. ♪ ♪

>> early sunday morning, almost 36 hours since quinn gray's abduction and 12 hours sense the last contact from the kidnappers fbi hostage negotiator toni cavity decided to have quinn's mom send text messages to her daughter's home hoping the kidnappers would read them. >> every 20 minutes, every hour we'd send a message. please call me. i love you. let me know that you're safe. i'm very worried about you. >> you want the kidnappers to start thinking of her as a mom who needs to go home to her family and not just a cash register. >> i want the kidnappers to think of quinn gray as a wife, as a daughter, as a mother. >> finally, a text came back about 9:30 a.m. this time to quinn's mom's phone. ♪ >> have the money in a bag. no traceable devices. no reid whatsoever. if he is anywhere close, she's dead.

no cops. be ready to leave at 11:00. the kidnappers had apparently decided they no longer wanted to deal with reid. >> why? the kidnappers don't trust reid? >> maybe. we didn't know. one of the techs said he had messed it up already. after the failed chick-fil-a drop, another thought was that mom was more controllable. ♪ ♪ >> so reid gray was no longer at the center of a huge law enforcement effort that was working around the clock to save his wife. quinn's mother would make the next money drop. it was an unlikely role for this 62-year-old grandmother, a manager at a walmart and a dog breeder on the side. >> i was very concerned that if i didn't drop the money properly that that would be the end for quinn. >> what, in your background, prepared you for what you were going through?

>> i guess just being a mother trying to protect your children. >> despite her nerve, gayle sykes was pressed into service. at around 10:30 a.m. the kidnappers instructed quinn's mom to go to mikeler's landing, an area along the beach and there she would find further instructions in a bathroom. gayle left her daughter's house. the money was in a blue bag, along with a tracking device courtesy of the fbi. at the location, quinn's mother found the designated bathroom. hidden inside the toilet paper holder was a note. it looked again to be in quinn's handwriting and gayle read it aloud to investigators. >> so far i'm fine. no harm has been done to me. after you pick up this letter you are going drive north toward joe's crab shack, got the money

out of the car and do not look back. anything goes wrong and i'm dead. ♪ >> up to this point they didn't want to hurt her. they had no intention of hurting her, but now it says anything goes wrong i'm dead. >> they're escalating it. >> yes. >> undercover agents converged on joe's crab shack, a local restaurant popular with tourists. >> we've got surveillance units out. we've got an airplane out. >> you're watching. >> we're watching. >> quinn's mom drove to the crab shack. >> and i drove through, came around the corner and there were bushes sitting on a sidewalk area. i stopped the car and rolled the window down. threw the money toward the bushes. >> did you tell investigators to watch the money carefully? >> absolutely. >> are you guys on to this? >> yeah. >> because, you know, i don't want some stranger to come along and pick up that bag. >> the plan is to see who picks up the bag and then what?

follow them back presumably toward where quinn is. >> we knew at their level they would be aware of the tracking device. they knew they would be surveilled so the plan was if someone grabbed that bag, we're taking them down. >> sheriff shoar, and the fbi in charge monitored from the mobile command center as undercover surveillance teams reported back on what was happening in the parking lot. >> it wasn't too long after she threw the money out. that a group of males walks by, one of them wanders over and kicks the bag a little bit and picked up the bag. threw the bag in the back of an suv, jumped into the car and started doing kind of a move around the area. >> they start doing suspicious things. they drive through a little neighborhood and almost trying to clean themselves from surveillance. >> it was the first major break in the case. >> now we've got a lead. we've got a license plate and

we've got three males and we're watching where they're going. ♪ ♪ >> but what happened next was not written in any book. and that's where everything went wrong. >> everything went wrong. coming up, on the trail of the men with the mono pep no one could believe where it would lead and then a new demand shakes up investigators. >> we're all thrown for a loop when we hear this. >> when "ransom" continues. [ male announcer ] the miraculous is everywhere. in our homes, our minds. we can share every second

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♪ ♪ ♪ the ransom drop had been made. sheriff's investigators and fbi agents believe they might be on the verge of breaking the kidnapping case of quinn gray. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> undercover teams and an fbi plane were following several men in an suv who had just picked up in an suv who had just picked up the ransom money from a restaurant parking lot. investigators were hoping the men didn't notice the tracking device in the bag or that the bag only contained $10,000. fbi agent in charge james casey.

>> the kidnappers asked for $50,000. >> right. >> you didn't give them $50,000. you gave them ten. >> we gave them less than $50,000. >> and they said don't put a gps tracking device in and you did. >> right. >> is that standard procedure to ignore kidnappers when they ask for that kind of thing. >> we're in charge, not them and it's to find out where they are. >> then came something no one expected. quinn's mom, gayle sykes. >> quinn called me and said where's the money? they're going to kill me. where is the money? >> and you said i dropped it. >> absolutely. >> oh, jesus, quinn! what kind of people are these? i told you. you go to the crab shack and there's a huge parking lot on your right. >> listen to me. hello? >> and for the first time everyone heard the voice of one of the kidnappers. >> was anybody following you? >> no. certainly not.

>> okay. anybody follows you, you know what happens. what? i'm sorry? hello? >> when you hear that guy's voice on the phone that changes everything. >> absolutely. she said early on, they were three albanians that grabbed her, and a loan shark and we had a male there. >> at last, a solid lead. but everyone, including the fbi's james casey was perplexed over why the kidnappers were still asking for the money. didn't they have it? they pulled into a gas station not far from joe's crab shack after they'd done a little bit of driving around. so as we're sitting there watching them a jacksonville beach police cruiser pulls into the gas station and starts talking to these young men. >> and you're thinking what? >> we had no idea what was going on. >> trying to keep the kidnapping quiet, so as not to tip off the local media, the fbi and sheriff's department had not

told the local police about the ransom drop. so a frantic call was made to the jacksonville beach police instructing officers to bring the suspects in. detective howard cole of the sheriff's office rushed to the scene. >> immediately everybody, rightfully so says these guys are involved. we need to interview these guys and we need to find out what the connection is. >> one man told the detective he was german. >> what's your address in germany? >> hamburg, germany. >> even though they were from germany, could they have had some connection with theal gainian men quinn mentioned in her first call to reid? >> we saw the blue bag. one of the guys was joking and said i'm sure there's money inside. that's a lot of money. what are we going to do with it? >> but in an unbelievable stroke of bad luck it turned out these men were not the kidnappers. >> and it becomes pretty clear

pretty quick that these guys were in the wrong place at the wrong time. >> the men were actually college exchange students. two of them played on the same tennis team. >> they looked at a bag and said, hey, wouldn't it be cool if there was some money in that bag and it was that simple, that coincidental and couldn't make it up. >> the college students stumbled on to the bag, picked it up and got scared when they saw cars following them. they then called 911. >> we found a blue bag in a parking lot and there was a lot of money in there and we just want to give it to you guys. >> they came down to jacksonville beach to have some fun. >> and they wound up with more than they expected. >> a lot more. >> it was a chance encounter that had everyone on edge. all of the money drop attempts, butler boulevard, chick-fil-a and now joe's crab shack had ended in failure.

>> three attempts at a ransom drop. the money never actually changed hands. >> no. >> the kidnappers never actually got the money. >> i turned to the fbi and i said what's happening with the money? they said well, we don't exactly know where the money is right now. i said, great. you've gotten my daughter killed. >> the real kidnappers were still looking for their money and, of course, it warrant sn'te drop location. >> mom is a wreck and mom knows she dropped off the money on. >> everything went wrong with the ransom drop. >> we're back to square one. >> back to square one again. >> you were kind of at the end of your rope. >> absolutely. >> it's not a tv show, is it? >> no. ♪ ♪ >> it had been about 43 hours since quinn disappeared as the fbi prepared yet another bag of

money, the kidnappers called back. it was the same male voice from before and he was angry about the lack of progress. >> listen. >> yes? >> i'm sick and tired of the [ bleep ], okay? you've been giving me [ bleep ] left and right. >> reid's been giving you [ bleep ]. >> he's going to go to the bank and pick up $50,000 and we'll arrange somewhere else to meet. >> more bad news to everyone. it was sunday of that labor day weekend. monday was a holiday. the banks would be closed, guaranteeing that this drama would last for at least another day and night. >> we're all thrown for a loop when we hear this. we didn't want to string this out two more days. >> not wanting to drag this out any longer, investigators decided to try a risky new strategy and told quinn's mom to now take an aggressive approach whenever she talked with the kidnappers. >> that's a big gamble. >> we tried to take a little more control.

we were still being cooperative and we were very clear that we would still pay the ransom. >> i didn't get the money. >> and i tell you, seriously, i think you're lying to me. >> what? >> i think you're lying to me. i think you've got it. >> and then something frightening happened. that aggressive approach might have backfired. >> did you hear that? >> what? >> did you hear that? >> the what? >> did you hear the round i just fired? >> no, my god, i didn't hear the round you just fired. no. >> well, listen. your daughter is fine. she just talked to you. keep it up. >> if i heard a round you let me talk to her again. >> and it was completely unexpected. i was in a situation that i was helpless in, and i thought i would never see her again and that was so sad because she would never be able to be a mother again and she would never see her children again. >> was that a gun shot? investigators couldn't hear it.

what did it mean? and was quinn still alive? coming up, just when things looked darkest, a huge break. an e-mailed photo with a hidden clue. >> they didn't know that a photograph taken on an iphone has gps coordinates on it. >> and then we know exactly when that photograph was taken. >> when "dateline" continues. so talk to your doctor about low t. hey, michael! [ male announcer ] and step out of the shadows. hi! how are you? [ male announcer ] learn more at isitlowt.com. [ laughs ] hey! by the armful? by the barrelful? the carful? how about...by the bowlful? campbell's soups give you nutrition, energy, and can help you keep a healthy weight.

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♪ ♪ ♪ it was sunday afternoon, almost two full days since quinn was abducted and after a terrible morning when the money drop at the crab shack restaurant turned so disastrous. a text message, apparently from quinn, was sent to her mom's cell phone around 2:00 p.m. ♪ ♪

>> mom, please, no cops. i am so sorry about all of this, but they are pisseb, and i want to see my girls. the fbi hostage negotiator was toni cavity. >> you think about the kids in a situation like this? >> absolutely. we had made arrangements for them to stay elsewhere so they would be preserved from this. we are preserving life. >> doub you believe quinn isn't alive anymore? >> we don't know. >> investigators are becoming increasingly worried that they hadn't heard quinn's voice since the day before and then at about 5:25 that evening another text message came in to quinn's mom's phone. >> i do not get access to my phone. have reid check his e-mail. pic of me taken. did he get all of the mono pep. >> in reid's e-mail there was

this photo of quinn. >> what can you tell from that photo? >> it certainly looked to me as though quinn was very distraught and maybe had been crying. she didn't look like quinn at all. not at all. >> the photo was taken using a cell phone and the background could be anywhere, but investigators got lucky because there's a little-known technology built into that photo and it offered investigators a huge break. >> they didn't know that a photograph taken on an iphone and e-mailed to somebody else has gps coordinates on it? >> yeah. >> i didn't know that. >> we were quickly able to check the photograph and check the gps coordinates and then we know exactly where that photograph had been taken. >> investigators rushed to this location in jacksonville. >> how long after you looked at that photograph did you have agents headed to the scene where it was taken? >> minutes. >> but there was no one there.

♪ ♪ >> later that night the kidnappers called back and quinn's mother, again, at the urging of the fbi kept up a tough negotiating stance. >> i want quinn in my car. i'm just warning you. i'm not give young the money until you have quinn in the car. >> i'm telling you what to do. >> i'm telling you what i'm going to do. >> did that aggressive approach seem to work? >> i think so. i really think so. >> another ransom drop was planned. >> all right. i talk to her first. i see her and she walks across and gets in my car. >> i'm making the decisions -- >> no. no. i'm sorry, but i am going to see my daughter and i'm going to have her in my car. i've got your [ bleep ] money and let me see my daughter and i want her in my car, do you understand? >> was this, at last, the end of this ordeal? it was not, because the kidnappers never showed and quinn's mom returned home. that's when investigators realized they had a new problem.

>> deputies in st. john's county are looking for a ponte vedra woman who didn't return. >> the story of quinn gray's disappearance somehow broke on the local news. a story investigators had been trying to keep out of the press. >> this hits the news. you weren't expecting that? >> i wasn't. we were pretty fortunate to have this go a couple of days without us being on the news and quite frankly, we don't want them to see it either. >> the kidnappers did see it and they were not happy. >> quinn's mom received a text. why is she on the news? >> that was one of those, oh, boy. oh, boy. now what are we going do with this one? >> remember, the kidnappers had threatened quinn's life if police became involved. the fact it was now hard to deny since it was on the news. so investigators came up with a cover story. the deputies found quinn's abandoned mercedes suv and came to her multimillion dollar home to make sure she was okay.

they had quinn's mom send a text. quinn, the police have found your car. they came here and they are now searching for you. call me as i am now very worried. i love you. mom. >> did the kidnappers seem to buy that? >> yes, they did. ♪ >> but that good news would be short lived as the next call from quinn would send everyone into a panic. >> quinn! quinn! what's wrong! quinn! quinn! a mother-daughter conversation that turns everything upside down. >> the blood drains from her face and she starts to shake and her knees go weak. >> when "ransom" continues. [ male announcer ] when it comes to the financial obstacles

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ it was monday, three days since quinn gray's kidnapping and there had been no communication with the kidnappers since the night before. the fbi's toni kravitz switched strategies. >> we had three drops go bad, but they were still willing to wait until tuesday. they still wanted the money and they wanted a way out and we wanted to give them a way out. >> what was the way out? >> nobody's been hurt, if they will just let you go, nobody will know the difference. >> just let her go. >> just let her go. >> monday morning turned into afternoon. quinn's mom seemed to be getting

desperate. she sent a text on her own to the kidnappers without fbi approval. >> i am heart broken and girls, probably no longer have a mother. you have no heart, and i pray that what goes around comes around. >> she was angry. she was tired. she was worried. >> angry at you? >> angry at all of us, i think. we weren't able to bring her daughter home yet. >> throughout the ordeal reid gray who was pushed into the background after the kidnappers didn't want to deal with him anymore had been ultimately upset and angry as well. detective howard cole spent some time with quinn's husband. >> i think there was times when he wanted to go get the money out of his own bank account and make the money drop. there were times when he felt we didn't know what we were doing. >> what was your sense of reid himself? >> he seemed like a real decent guy? >> genuinely worried about his guy? >> yes. he was helpless, powerless and dependent on us to fix it and i was empathetic and put myself in

his shoes and i thought he dealt with it pretty well considering the circumstances. >> reid waited at his home and everyone waited as minutes became hours hoping for some contact, but there was nothing. ♪ ♪ >> quinn's mom was so stressed that toni kravitz suggested a change of scenery and had her brought to this backcourt yard of the fbi's jacksonville headquarters. it was around 6:00 p.m. >> gail picked up the phone and her whole physical being changed. >> and it was quinn. >> quinn! quinn! what's wrong? >> and she was completely hysterical on the phone, screaming, literally. she was screaming at me. >> quinn! quinn! talk to me, please. >> she was incoherent at that point and i couldn't understand what she was saying. >> quinn! did they hurt you? >> toni could only hear one side of the conversation. >> gayle's blood drained from